302 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



But there are a great many really good dairy cows that because 

 of improper feeding and care are not making a good showing, nor 

 their owners any money. Let us then for a few minutes take up the 

 subject of feeding dairy cows. 



This IS a large subject; quite too large for me, involving as it does 

 a stud}^ of balanced rations, prices of different feeds, digestibility, 

 palatability, and, from the farmer's and dairyman's standpoint, what 

 crops to grow on the farm. 



The original and natural ration is pasture grass and there is 

 nothing that equals fresh pasturage for the production of milk and 

 butter. But we cannot have fresh pasture the year round in this 

 climate. True we can by sowing rye or wheat have late fall pasture 

 and again very early in the spring, and it will pay to do so, but after 

 hard freezing weather pasture is no longer satisfactory and we must 

 looke elsewhere for feed. Indeed it will not do to depend wholly 

 on pasture for a ration for cows but a very small portion of the year, 

 but we must stand ready to supplement it with some other feed much 

 of the time. In my herd I always feed a little grain feed no matter 

 how good the grass may be. 



The chemist will analyze our pasture grasses and tell you that 

 they contain all the elements to make a perfectly balanced ration. 

 He will also take the same grasses when carefully cured and tell you 

 that they contain practically the same elements as before except that 

 there is less water. Now anyone knows that you cannot take these 

 same cured grasses and by the addition of the proper amount of 

 water make fresh green grass any more than you can add water to 

 dried fruit and make it fresh again, and as fresh fruit is much better 

 to most people's taste so fresh green fodder of any kind is better 

 than dried to the cow. 



There is something in the green feeds that the chemist cannot 

 analyze. We call it succulence, and because it adds greatly to its 

 palatability it plays an important part in the digestive economy of 

 the cow. How then shall we supply during the winter months that 

 succulence that the cow so much delights in? There are two ways 

 or rather there are two substitutes for green feed that are available. 

 One is by growing root crops, but that calls for a great deal of labor 

 in growing and harvesting and a large amount of storage room 

 where the crop can be stored out of reach of frost. On that account 

 they have never been largely grown in the west. A better way to 

 supply a succulent feed is by putting up ensilage. This while it is 

 quite different from the green fodder yet retains it succulence. It 

 is true that at the Wisconsin Experiment Station practically the same 



